一月一日, 小布什发表了一年一度的State of Union Address, 为了EXTRA CREDIT, 我在新年当晚写了一篇4页长的感想(其实可能只有3页, 因为用了DOUBLE SPACE才变成了4页). 本来可能再写很多, 但因为没什么时间, 所以有很多方面都没有谈, 最后的两段也写得很草率.
On January.20, President Bush had his State of Union Address in Washington D.C. He talked about the terror after his compendious introduction. Then he talked about Iraq and the Middle East. After that, he shifted the topic to American economic and the little bit about the education. Also, he talked about the immigration law and the health care. Last, he talked about the drugs, sexually transmitted diseases, the marriage and the religious. And after briefly described the letter from a little girl, he ended his address with, “May God continue to bless America.”
First I have to admit, President Bush’s speech was articulate. However, if allow me to ask, I may ask thousand of questions. For the terror part, I was pretty disappointed. Why does he care about the terror so much while many schools don’t even have enough money to pay for one more bus for the kids (just like our school, I heard that we don’t have enough money to pay for one more IB bus for the IB students who live in Merritt Island; and the IB bus was actually overloaded). And he said, if we don’t resolve the terror problem, the terrorists would continue to plot against America and the civilized world. Assume that’s truth first. Then I got to ask, why do the terrorists will continue to plot against America? For a person to do something against his/ her conscience, usually, there must be some motivations (unless they are crazy), did America give them the motivations? Such as hatred, especially the religious hatred. If I am right, then as long as America still fighting with the terror, the war in middle-east will never end, unless America wipe them out completely. But if America really does that, then what’s the different between killing and saving? And I guess I am not the only one who questioning about do we actually get safer by attacking the terror? Or did we actually get more dangerous because the will revenge? And what is the Patriot Act? (Jeremy told me something about it, the Democrat against it, because this act contradicts with the 4th and 5th Amendment). In my opinion, the conflict in the Middle East is kind of the problem that reminded from the history and religious, and probably it’s also part of the reason why many Middle East people became terrorists. And it’s really hard to resolved by other countries, especially those that have different faith. Maybe America should help their people to help themselves out, but not just step in and do what we think it’s right. And I was wondered what was P. Bush actually talking about when he said, “I believe that God has planted in every human heart the desire to live in freedom.” Different religious believe in different God, and different culture defined “freedom” differently, especially the Middle East, and some culture care about the happiness more than their rights and freedom.
What President Bush said about the Iraq it’s really irony. It’s not a bad thing to destroy Saddam’s regime if they ask for it, but now it’s a totally different story. P. Bush said, “America has always been willing to do what it takes for what is right. Last January, Iraq's only law was the whim of one brutal man. Today our coalition is working with the Iraqi Governing Council to draft a basic law, with a bill of rights.” What is the mean of “right”? Iraqi people think it’s right or American think it’s right? And I really doubt about the so-called law they’re going to draft, feel like actually is our coalition is working on it, instead of working with the Iraqi Governing Council. And I never feel the Iraqi people are freed. How long and how painful the reconstruction will be, especially they didn’t gain their so called freedom by themselves, and they neither have a strong leadership, nor talented leaders. My generation is the first generation that enjoys the success of the reconstruction and the revolution of China after WWII. Both of my grandparents’ and my parents’ generation suffered a great deal, and even my older cousins had a bad time during their childhood. And we’re really lucky, because we got many great leaders during those tough time, so China was rebuild pretty fast. But the conditions in Iraq is different, who is going to suffer again? The Iraqi people, And I felt really funny when P. Bush talked about the weapons in Iraq. Well then, it had been more than a year, where is the weapon? “We don’t have desire of domination and ambitious”, then what are we doing in Iroq if there’s no weapon? However, it’s very nice that America provided the Iraqi people foods and daily needs, that’s the things they need more than freedom.
For the economic part, I like some of them, but not all. P. Bush said, “America's growing economy is also a changing economy. Much of our job growth will be found in high-skilled fields like health care and biotechnology. So we must respond by helping more Americans gain the skills to find good jobs in our new economy…. We're providing more funding for our schools -- a 36-percent increase since 2001.” It’s really true, and it’s also a great decision. More people get train or more they improve, higher efficiency is going to be, and if the works are done more efficient, surely the economic will growth. And I think the No Child Left Behind Act is pretty nice too, we do have the responsibility to study better, because we are the future, whether the country is continuing to be powerful is base on us. Also, it’s great that the government put money for training the older students and the adults, and provide extra help to middle and high school students who fall behind in reading and math, expand advanced placement programs in low-income schools. These are much better than spend our tax money on war. Further, he said, “My administration is promoting free and fair trade to open up new markets for America's entrepreneurs and manufacturers and farmers -- to create jobs for American workers.” I believe the economic will growth, if the government is actually going to accomplish this, many people are still unemployed, and if they get a job, and get some money, they may support themselves, support their family by themselves, and the government could save some money for giving less people financial aid. And I think it is truth that there’s a need to cut wasteful spending, and be wise with the people's money.
I don’t know much about the new Immigration Law, but if that could create more jobs for American by preventing illegal immigrate, it’s not a bad idea, after all, those illegal immigration are actually hard workers for low wages and many place are willing to hire them. The health care part was also the part I like, especially the medical care for the seniors’ part. I felt that’s absolutely wonderful, the senior people do need more care and more attention from the government. Unlike many Eastern countries, most of the senior people here don’t live with their children, who know when they need help or need someone to take care them if no one ask them? Last year, I raise money for Relate for Life, when I asked some old people whether they would like to donate some money for the America Cancer Society to fight against the cancers, some of them responded, “ I wish the government could give me some money, so that I could have a better treatment.” I was shocked, when I heard that, and I guess it would be a great relief to the senior people when P. Bush said it’s going to be a 10-25% discount for drugs for the senior people, and the government will give them more medical care.
I don’t really like the rest of them, but it’s a good thing that the government is going to put more money into the drugs and sexually transmitted diseases program, but whether it will work or not, we’ll see. Overall, I felt not bad about what President Bush said in the State of Union Address, and I think it’ll be more wonderful, if the government could put more money into the colleges and the scholarships instead of terror and war.
